The choking death this week of 2-year-old Bentley Do in Mira Mesa while awaiting firefighters has spurred reconsideration of a number of ideas for redeploying scarce resources — including three-person fire crews instead of four.

The suggestion has been floated many times over the years in San Diego — by the mayor, City Council and residents. Some see it as a way to cut spending without using the current method of idling eight engines at a time. By keeping more engines available, albeit with fewer firefighters, crews could be ready at more stations.

It’s a solution that several local fire agencies have turned to over the years as a way to save money, including Chula Vista, Poway, Lakeside and El Cajon.

“Most agencies in San Diego County are three-person crews,” said San Miguel Fire Protection District Chief Augie Ghio, who also heads the San Diego County Fire Chief’s Association.

“Ninety-eight percent of the time, what we do works out quite well. Our employees are well-trained, well-equipped and they understand the limitations of a three-person crew. And there are limitations.”

“What level of service are citizens willing to pay for? That’s really what it boils down to for most agencies,” Ghio added.

But San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Javier Mainar says it’s the wrong fit for his city, the largest in the county. Indeed, a survey by The San Diego Union-Tribune of the 15 largest cities in America found that the top 12, including San Diego, all staff firetrucks with at least four firefighters.

“The bottom line, in all the studies and analyses, is that with three you lose efficiency and a margin of safety for both firefighters and the community members they’re trying to protect,” Mainar said Friday.

He added that reducing staffing to three firefighters per engine doesn’t make sense for a city that already can’t meet response-time goals and needs to build 22 more fire stations.

“We are just barely keeping up doing a job that doesn’t meet national standards at this point,” he said.

Authorities point to numerous studies done by various fire departments and other organizations that conclude four is better and safer than three.

The size of the crew had a notable impact on the ability to protect life and property when fighting structure fires, according to a 2010 federally-funded study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The study showed that four-person crews were able to complete 22 essential tasks 25 percent faster than a three-person crew. Similar conclusions were made in a San Diego State University report released this week regarding wildland fires.

Still, Bentley’s death while choking on a gum ball on Tuesday raised the question again for San Diego. Fire officials say the city’s rolling brownouts that idle eight engines a day to save on overtime pay might have contributed to the tragedy.

Correction

This story has been amended from its original, which incorrectly stated that the fire station a block away was browned out. Rather, the fire crew stationed there was handling a call for a browned out station elsewhere and was not available to respond to the choking call.